Fairy Tales # 1: An Inevitable Meeting

A man never invited anyone over. Everyone invited him, and he didn’t invite.

People told him: invite someone, or nobody will come to you. He answered: whoever needs to come will come. People told him: and if nobody comes? He answered: then it wasn’t needed.

One day there was a knock at the door. A man came in and said:

– I’ve come to see you.
– What for? – asked the host.
– I don’t know, – said the guest. – I was walking, and I got here.
– That’s how it should be, – said the host.

They sat down and started talking. Then the guest left. Then another came. Then a third. The invitations lay in the table drawer all this time, unwritten.

Then a scholar passed by. He looked in at the window and said: it’s a regularity. Cause leads to effect, and effect leads to the door. No religion, pure physics.

– And cybernetics? – someone asked.
– And cybernetics, – said the scholar, and left.

And one man walked past the house and didn’t knock. What he lost is unknown. What he gained is unknown too. But most likely he lost.

If you are reading this, then you have already come in.

Welcome to my tales!

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The subtext. Buddhist thought: nothing arises from nothing, and meetings too come from causes and conditions. The scholar in the story calls it a regularity; Buddhism calls it dependent origination. You are reading this because something brought you here. Today, open the door to someone you did not invite.